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Dutch Prosecutors Launch Criminal Investigation Against Uber For Flouting Ban
An anonymous reader writes Dutch prosecutors have announced that they are prosecuting taxi-hailing giant Uber for continuing to disregard last December's ban on the company offering its unlicensed UberPOP service in the Netherlands. The statement declares 'The company Uber is now a suspect...This means a preliminary examination will be started to collect evidence that Uber is providing illegal transportation on a commercial basis,'. Dutch police presented evidence to the prosecutors of UberPOP drivers in Amsterdam ignoring the ban, and at the time of writing the UberPOP service is still available via Uber's Amsterdam website [https://www.uber.com/cities/amsterdam]. Though Uber inspires new litigation on a weekly basis in the territories in which it is seeking to consolidate its services, this is the first time it has been the subject of a criminal prosecution.
"The best laid plans of mice and men are held up in the legal department."
I can't wait for the day they are all replaced by robots.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
The Uber drivers I have used have all been great. Complaints I've seen have all been about Uber the company, not the drivers... the drivers are just normal people trying to earn a living by making use of what they have.
Most taxi drivers I have encountered on the other hand, have ranged from standoffish to incredibly rude and sometimes hostile, frequently lying about fares to get more money. Taxi drivers can be that way in most places because they have no competition, no reason to provide anything like good service at all - and it doesn't hurt that in a number of areas they are tied to organized crime.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A select few have managed to use government to gain control of a disproportionate percentage of the wealth. It's not licensed taxi drivers that are the problem. It's the licensing requirements themselves that are the problem. Politicians and an elite have utilized the fear and publication of and from atrocities to gain the upper hand. We've been scared into accepting laws or otherwise had laws thrusted down our throats that make no sense whatsoever. Just because there will be a select few who take advantage of a system without licensed drivers to mame and murder passengers doesn't mean its a significant problem or that we need licensed drivers. The costs to the masses is huge and those costs end up as profits of a select few. This is wrong.
We should not have to register vehicles, obtain drivers licenses, social security numbers, license plates, or submit to other forms of identification. It's not impossible to arrest someone for committing murder in a system without driver licenses or taxi licenses. Such licensing doesn't stop or reduce the murder rate either. All it does is add costs to running a business.
As a human being we should have a right to run a business without interference unless our actions are interfering with the rights of others. You don't have a right to pollute the waters, but you do have a right to drive people without being licensed. At the same time people have the right to refuse business with unlicensed drivers. Uber I imagine actually reduces risk to drivers and passengers alike by enabling individuals to select safer drivers. While you can still run into people who will rape and murder that'll happen regardless of any licensing system. It's only because there are people some don't like (ie the taxi industry) that we hear about the murders/rapes by Uber drivers. The risk ultimately is almost non-existent though as it is almost a non-existent problem (I'm not going to go into why- but ultimately the statistics lie- or are otherwise misleading).
Being able to name a company as a suspect and file criminal charges against it would be amazing. Instead of just fining a company 0.001% of its annual net income, actually put some of these criminals into jail.
Foreclosed somebody's house "by accident" even though it was already paid off? That's felony theft of $250,000, treat the company like you would treat any individual who did that, no little $5,000 fine, someone needs to go to jail.
A corporate death penalty would be nice too for the big fuckups.
In most legal systems, you can't just directly ignore a court order without it becoming a criminal case. Even if it wasn't criminal before, violating a court order is itself an offense.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
the actual issue here in the Netherlands is that the taxi drivers have insurance in case they crash for their passengers.
uberPOP drivers don't have that so next to providing illegal commercial taxi services they are also uninsured
Uber is clearly racketeering. Are there special penalties there for it, as in the U.S.? There must be a solid extradition treaty between the two nations. If convicted, could the top Uber execs be facing years in Dutch prison?
Personally, I hope so. The idea that it's legal to be a crook as long as you're using smart phones and unlicensed contract labor to do it is pernicious. The Dutch literally invented capitalism. Let's hope they show the world again what it can be at its best, with the proper controls and ethics.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
True I would say places in the U.S. like NYC, SF, and Miami have especially bad cab drivers.
But I did not have good experiences in Rome, Belgum (also Brussels), and in fact in Germany also (Berlin).
I will agree the black cabs in London are very good, and actually I did have a great cab driver also in Turkey now that I think about it so I do feel a bit sorry for maligning them all in a blanket statement.
But I still stand by the statement that on average the Uber drivers have been much nicer, the cars in much better repair (even the taxi drivers that were friendly in Turkey still had pretty beat up cars).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's absolutely fucking insane that a business based on calling someone for a ride makes those with political power shit themselves with attempts to shut it down. Absolutely insane.
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If you have a representative government change the laws. If your elected officials answer to special interest elect ones who don't. I know, lost cause, shut up and pay up.